Pavlov - Classical Conditioning

Pavlov is one of those theorists that besides Freud, I think he's pretty famous. His experiment of a dog is unique too, so I could memorize him easily. It's okay to kinda forget almost all theorists, but if you forgot Freud or Pavlov, that would be a crime. 

His face is also pretty memorable (?). With that mustache and beard, who can resist him? #pavlove lol. Okay enough let's get into the lesson.

Q: Who is Pavlov?

A: Ivan Petrovich Pavlov (Ivan..such a creative Russian name), (26 September 1849 – 27 February 1936) was a Russian physiologist who, in the course of his work on the digestive process, developed a procedure for studying behavior and a principle of learning that profoundly affected the field of psychology. So at first, he's a physiologist, not a psychologist.

Around the beginning of the 20th century, Pavlov was involved in the study of gastric secretions in dogs. As part of his research, he placed some food powder inside the mouth of a dog and measured the resulting amount of salivation. He noticed that after a number of such trials the dog began to salivate, even before the food was put in its mouth, to certain stimuli: the sight of the food dish, the approach of the person who brought the food, and so forth. Stimuli that previously did not elicit salivation (called neutral stimuli) could now elicit the salivation response because of their association with the food

powder that automatically caused the dog to salivate. To animal owners, this may not seem to be a startling observation. However, it led Pavlov to conduct significant research on the process known as classical conditioning.

Pavlov explored a broad range of scientific issues. In addition to his work on basic conditioning processes, he studied individual differences among his dogs, thereby stimulating a new field of temperament research (Strelau, 1997). He made important contributions to the understanding of abnormal behavior, using animal experiments to study disorganized behavior in dogs and human

patients to study neuroses and psychoses, providing the foundation for forms of therapy based on principles of classical conditioning. In 1904 he was awarded the Nobel Prize for his work on digestive processes. His methods and concepts remain important today; they are among the most important in the

history of psychology (Dewsbury, 1997).

Q: What is Classical Conditioning?

A: Classical conditioning is a process in which a stimulus that initially is neutral (i.e., that the organism initially does not respond to in any significant manner) eventually elicits a strong response. It elicits the response because the neutral stimulus becomes associated with some other stimulus that does produce a

response. The process in which the organism learns to respond to the stimulus that originally was neutral is known as conditioning.

Q: What are The Principles of Classical Conditioning?

A: In the classic case studied in Pavlov’s lab, a dog salivates the first time that food is presented. The response of salivation to food is not learned or conditioned; it is an automatic, built-in response of the organism. In the terminology of classical conditioning: food is an unconditioned stimulus (US), and salivation in response to food is an unconditioned response (UR),

“Unconditioned” here merely means that the connection between stimulus and response occurs

without any learning or conditioning. Pavlov then introduces a new stimulus, such as the sound of a bell. Initially, this sound is neutral (NS); it does not elicit any strong response on the part of the dog in 

Pavlov’s lab. Then the critical step in the research is taken. Over a series of trials, the bell is sounded just before the presentation of food. After these learning trials, the bell is sounded without any food

being presented. What happens? The dog now salivates merely upon hearing the ring of the bell. Conditioning has occurred. The previously neutral stimulus now elicits a strong response. At this point, the bell is called a conditioned stimulus (CS), and the salivation in response to the bell is a conditioned response (CR).

Through classical conditioning, one also can learn to avoid a stimulus that initially is neutral. This is called conditioned withdrawal. In early research on conditioned withdrawal, a dog was strapped in a harness, and electrodes were attached to its paw. The delivery of an electric shock (US) to the paw led to

the withdrawal of the paw (UR), which was a reflex response on the part of the animal. If a bell was repeatedly presented just before the shock, eventually the bell alone (CS) was able to elicit the withdrawal response (CR).

Conclusion:

1. Neutral Stimulus (NS) = a stimulus that does not yet produce a particular response [ring of a bell before conditioning]
2. Unconditioned Stimulus (US) = stimulus that elicits response without learning / automatic [food]
3. Unconditioned Response (UR) = a reflexive response elicited by a stimulus without learning / automatic [salivation in response to food]
4. Conditioned Stimulus (CS) = an initially neutral stimulus that elicits a conditioned response after being associated with an unconditioned stimulus [ring of a bell after conditioning]
5. Conditioned Response (CR) = response that is elicited by a conditioned stimulus [salivation in response to a ring of bell]

Q: What are the important phenomena in Classical Conditioning?

A: The experimental arrangement designed by Pavlov to study classical conditioning allowed him to investigate a number of important phenomena.

1. Generalization = the response that had become conditioned to a previously neutral stimulus would also become associated with similar stimuli [sounds that similar to a bell give similar response]
2. Discrimination = If repeated trials indicate that only some stimuli are followed by the unconditioned stimulus, the animal recognizes differences among stimuli [dog can differentiate between bell and alarm sound]
3. Extinction = if the originally neutral stimulus is presented repeatedly without being followed at least occasionally by the unconditioned stimulus, there is an undoing or progressive weakening of the conditioning or association [dog didn't produce any saliva again after hearing a bell to many times without receiving any food]

Q: What is the psychopathology and change in Classical Conditioning?

A: Pavlov extended his analysis of conditioning to the study of phenomena of clinical interest. He developed explanations for phenomena such as psychological conflict and the development of neuroses. A classic example explored what came to be known as experimental neuroses in animals. 

In this research, a dog was conditioned to salivate to the image of a circle. Differentiation between a circle and a similar figure, an ellipse, was then conditioned; this was done by not reinforcing the response to the ellipse, while the response to the circle continued to be reinforced. Then, gradually, the ellipse was changed in shape. Its shape was made to be closer and closer to a circle. At first, the dog could still discriminate between the circle and the ellipse. But then, as the figures became extremely similar, it no longer could tell them apart. What happened to the dog? 

Its behavior became disorganized, Pavlov said:

"After three weeks of work upon this discrimination not only did the discrimination fail to improve, but it became considerably worse, and finally disappeared altogether. The hitherto quiet dog began to squeal in its stand kept wriggling about, tore off with its teeth the apparatus for mechanical stimulation of the skin, and bit through the tubes connecting the animal’s room with the observer, a behavior which never happened before. On being taken into the experimental room the dog now barked violently, which was also contrary to its usual custom; in short, it presented all the symptoms of a condition of acute neurosis."

Q: What is Conditioned Emotional Reactions?

A: To understand conditioned emotional reactions you have to understand the story of Little Albert first. In this research, the experimenters, Watson and Rayner (1920), combined a stimulus that Little Albert was not afraid of—a small white laboratory rat— with an unconditioned stimulus that elicited fear—the noise produced by striking a hammer on a suspended steel bar. They then found that if the bar

was struck immediately behind Albert’s head just as he began to reach for a rat, he began to develop a fear of the rat. After a few experimental trials, the instant the rat alone (without the noise) was shown to Albert, he began to cry. He had developed what is called a conditioned emotional reaction. Furthermore, Albert’s fear generalized, just as dogs’ responses had generalized in Pavlov’s lab. Albert began to fear not only white rats but also other white and furry objects—including, Watson and Rayner's report, the white beard of a Santa Claus mask!

Q: What is The Unconditioning Fear of a Rabbit?

A: Unconditioning fear of a rabbit is basically Maru Jones Study of Peter. An experiment by Mary Cover Jones aka Jones, to a boy, Peter, who then was two years and ten months old, that has a fear toward rat and rabbit, that extended toward other furry things. The experiment is to do therapeutic for Jones that would make his fear of a rabbit extinct. (It's basically like conditioning but backward, so it's called unconditioning, conditioning by general makes you afraid of something, so unconditioning makes you not afraid of something).

Peter was seated in a chair and given food he liked as the experimenter gradually brought the rabbit in a wire cage closer to him: “Through the presence of a pleasant stimulus (food) whenever the rabbit was shown, the fear was eliminated gradually in favor of a positive response.

Jones noted that after the unconditioning of Peter’s fear of the rabbit, he completely lost his fear of the fur coat, feathers, and cotton wool as well.

Q: What is Systematic Desensitization?

A: A major advance in the application of classical conditioning principles to questions of psychopathology was the development of a therapeutic technique known as systematic desensitization. The technique was developed by Joseph Wolpe, a psychiatrist from South Africa, who became familiar with the writings of Pavlov. 

Wolpe viewed persistent reactions of anxiety as a learned response that could be un-learned. He developed a therapy that was designed to provide this “unlearning.” Phrased more technically, his therapy technique of systematic desensitization was designed to inhibit anxiety through counterconditioning. In counterconditioning, a person learns a new response that is physiologically

incompatible with an existing response. If the existing response to a stimulus is fear or anxiety, then the goal might be to have the person learn a new response such as relaxation. Once the person learns, through new classical conditioning experiences, to experience relaxation in response to the previously feared stimulus, his or her fear should be eliminated.

Anxiety hierarchies: The therapist encourages the patient to achieve a deep state of relaxation and then

to imagine the least anxiety-arousing stimulus in the anxiety hierarchy. If the patient can imagine the stimulus without anxiety, then he or she is encouraged to imagine the next stimulus in the hierarchy while remaining relaxed. Periods of pure relaxation are interspersed with periods of relaxation

and imagination of anxiety-arousing stimuli. If the patient feels anxious while imagining a stimulus, he or she is encouraged to relax and return to imagining a less anxiety-arousing stimulus.

Finally, I finished. God, I'm tired. Too many things to take in. But I did it :")

KEY TERMS:

Classical Conditioning, Neutral Stimulus (NS), Unconditioned, Unconditioned Stimulus (US), Unconditioned Response (UR), Conditioned Stimulus (CS), Conditioned Response (CR), Generalization, Discrimination, Extinction, Conditioned Emotional Reactions, Little Albert, Unconditioning, Study of Peter, Systematic Desensitization, Anxiety Hierarchies

REFERENCES:

Cervone, D., & Pervin, L. A. (2015). Personality: Theory and research twelfth edition. John Wiley & Sons.